Customer call centers are increasingly using automated self-service applications. Self-service call center applications are much less expensive than those using service agents. A well designed self-service application can cost as little as 10% as an application using service agents.
Because of this potential savings, today's call center service providers desire to increase the number of self-service calls relative to agent-assisted calls. However, when deciding among various designs for self-service applications, there are considerations in addition to savings. Specifically, the service provider must consider whether, in addition to reducing agent costs, a particular design can achieve quality of service goals, such as high customer task completion, high customer satisfaction, and short call duration. Conversion of a call center system from agent-assisted to self-service can be accomplished incrementally. The overall goal becomes performing more and more customer tasks with self-service applications, while holding or improving task completion and customer satisfaction.